In the 113th minute, Mario Götze ran into the Argentinian penalty area, took the perfect cross from André Schürrle with his chest and skillfully sunk the ball into the goal with his left foot. It is the winning goal for the DFB team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, securing Germany the long-awaited title. A gateway for the history books. On the sidelines of the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, the substitutes and the coaching staff can hardly believe their luck – the cheers are endless.
“When Mario came on, I knew: we’ve made it!” Lars Lienhard recalled in a DW interview. “It was a very exciting and incredibly emotional experience.” Lienhard is an expert in neuro-athletics and was an integral part of the support team at the DFB during the 2014 World Cup. He works with athletes on the movement-controlling components of the central nervous system.
The sports scientist trains the brains of his protégés and thus optimizes their movements. At the 2014 World Cup, he looked after Per Mertesacker, Benedikt Höwedes – and Götze, among others. “Mario was about perception processes, i.e. the visual system, the balance system and orientation in space as well as the perception of space,” explains Lienhard.
It is not certain whether the neuro-centric training that Götze had already integrated into his everyday life before the World Cup really had an impact on his perfect movement sequences in the Argentine penalty area before he shot on goal. But it probably didn’t hurt the winning goal scorer.
Every movement is controlled by the brain
At first glance, neuroathletics appears to be a highly complex form of training, but it’s actually quite simple. All movements that a human makes are controlled and controlled by the brain. And so that these controls work as smoothly and perfectly as possible, neuroathletics trainers train the brain.
Germany’s best tennis player Alexander Zverev (right) also relies on neuro-athletic training
“Athletic training prepares an athlete’s physical components for competition,” explains Lienhard. “What does the body need to be able to do to be a good shot putter? How many changes of direction does a right-back need to be able to do?” But every sport and every discipline also has neuronal requirements, according to Lienhard. “So: What does the brain have to be able to do in order to optimally solve the movement task?” And that’s what neuroathletics is all about.
“Because the brain determines how the muscle is used,” says Lienhard. And not only to optimize performance, but also to prevent injuries or accelerate the healing process. “If a person has shoulder problems, for example, we don’t look at what’s structurally broken in the shoulder, but look at: What systems in the brain regulate tension around the shoulder?”
That could be the midbrain on the opposite side or the balance system in the middle ear, according to Lienhard: “We activate these brain areas via sensory information. Then we see whether something changes in the shoulder. We take care of the switching systems that influence the symptoms to have.”
Haase: “Please don’t let anyone watch”
Many athletes now use brain training to improve their own performance, but also to prevent injuries. Rebekka Haase is one of the fastest sprinters in Germany and is currently in a training camp with the national sprint team in Gran Canaria. For around seven years, the athlete has integrated brain training into her sporting life. Especially after long journeys she uses certain exercises.
Sprinter Rebekka Haase (right) trains her movement sequences at the start together with Lars Lienhard
“For me personally, after a flight, it’s often about restoring my equilibrium system. This allows me to train much better and more precisely,” Haase told DW. In the meantime, the athlete also uses some exercises before her competitions – even if it may look strange. “If you turn your head, move your jaw in a different direction or stick your tongue out somewhere, the cameramen will be very happy,” says the sprinter. “But no matter how stupid it looks, I’ll just do it now.”
The tools used by brain trainers are often quite simple and can be found in every reasonably sorted household. A piece of string, a ruler or a pen is often enough to stimulate and train certain areas of the brain. For example, when an athlete follows a pen with their eyes, they activate certain areas in the brain. In this way, information is transported via the eyes to the brain. “But what then happens in the brain is a bit more complex,” explains Lienhard. “Nevertheless, sometimes it’s very simple exercises that make you think: No, really now?”
Möckel: “Tried everything to prevent it”
People are not always enthusiastic about the new training method, Lienhard often meets skeptical people – like Jörg Möckel. The national sprint coach is good friends with the two-time shot put world champion David Storl, who called him in 2014 and reported on a new training method: “He said: ‘I have someone who does strange exercises with me. And afterwards I can do certain things better'”, Möckel remembers a telephone conversation with Storl. The trainer wanted to see for himself and got in the car to attend a training session between Storl and Lienhard.
Shot putter David Storl has improved his movements with neuro-centric training
“I then tried for over two hours to prevent Lars [Lienhard – Anm. d. Red.] does some nonsense with ‘Storli’,” the national coach recalled in an interview with DW. “I couldn’t understand what he was doing, but it was successful in the end.” But it wasn’t until Moeckel did a few exercises himself that he understood the point and benefit of brain training. Since then, neuro-centred training has been an integral part of the national sprint team. “It’s just as much a part of it as proper sleep, nutrition or physiotherapy,” Moeckel is convinced.
Lienhard: “We’re just at the beginning”
The list of athletes who rely on brain training is long and, above all, independent of the discipline. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Germany’s best tennis player Alexander Zverev, football professionals like Jamal Musiala or the best track and field athletes – they all rely on neuro-centred training.
“It’s not where it should be,” says Lienhard. “Neuroathletics does not only belong in top-class sport, but above all in popular and rehabilitation sports as well as sports therapy.” In these areas, according to the sports scientist, people have a particularly large number of movement disorders, and neuroathletics can help. That’s why Lienhard is sure: “We’re just at the beginning.”